Jan 17, 2019 11:31 PM
8532 Views
I want to bring to the attention of BA Senior Management and to the wider public(potential passengers/customers) certain sharp practices that BA indulges in to defraud Indian/Asian customers.
My wife bought tickets on Expedia for our family to fly from Amsterdam to Bangalore(our home city) with a stopover in London. Neither Expedia not BA informed us that Transit visas were required for such a flight. If they had provided a one-liner note in the booking process, we would have either obtained transit visas or most likely chosen to travel on some other airlines – the tickets had been bought 2 months in advance and we had plenty of time.
However, some of our friends told us that sometimes flight via London, they insist on transit visas – we heard both type of experiences(with/without transit visas) – so we called BA and discussed the matter before our travel date. BA staff in India informed us that transit visas are not required if the connecting flight in London is on the same day and same airport – there is no stepping out of the airport – hence no requirement of a transit visa. So, we went ahead with our travel plans.
On the day of our travel(Jan 1, 2019) we were shocked when the BA check-in staff denied us boarding citing non-transit visa. They were very cavalier about the whole thing & seemed to enjoy our discomfort/problem and did not bother checking with senior immigration officials about the situation – they did not offer any alternate arrangement, not even little courtesies – it was as though they had laid a trap & were waiting for us! It did not matter to them that we held valid BA tickets and valid Indian passports. They would not even speak to us! I wonder if they would have behaved this way if we were Europeans/Americans! So much for their advertisements about caring for the passenger! They harp so much about the Commonwealth but basically treat Indians like third world people. And British Airways does so much business in India!
To add insult to injury, they gave our seats to other passengers and did not refund us our ticket amount(which they said they would when I filed a complaint on their portal). They even admitted in their letter that they sometimes give out incorrect information! It makes me conclude that British Airways makes money off unsuspecting Asians(with these via London flights) – not unlike colonial times!
We had to spend a very large amount to buy on the spot tickets to get home with a stopover in Abu Dhabi – which turned out to be a great flight. For consolations, we came to know from my B-I-L who traveled BA that the service was very poor and food very insipid!
To summarize, BA made money from our tickets, gave us false information, denied us boarding on vague rules and then made money again by giving our seats to other passengers! Very sharp business model! Reminiscent of colonial times!
Well, I have flown BA many times before – but never again! They have lost at least 10 customers from my family, forever. Between our friends & family, maybe 25-30 customers for life.
We will spend the rest of our lives discouraging people from traveling BA & informing them about their fraudulent & discriminatory practices towards Asians. You cannot be a great Airlines without the goodwill of passengers/customers. We recommend travelers to Europe/US to travel on Middle Eastern airlines(Emirates, Etihad, QA) - they are much better – their aircraft are newer, food much better and they treat their passengers/customers much better.
